Sen. Paul Questions Secretary of State Kerry at Foreign Relations Hearing
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Rand Paul today attended the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing to question Secretary of State John Kerry regarding the FY2014 International Affairs Budget. In the hearing, Sen. Paul highlighted the importance of eliminating sending oft-abused financial assistance to other countries’ governments, while America’s infrastructure continues to disintegrate. Below is the video of his remarks and questions:
SEN. PAUL: Thank you, Secretary Kerry, for coming today. You mention in your remarks that we don’t need politicians to go home and say that we need to end foreign aid and spend that money at home. Well, this might come as news to one of the most prominent politicians in our country who said in his re-election campaign that we need to do less nation building abroad and more nation building at home, and that would be your current boss, the President of the United States. So I don’t think this is unique to Republicans or Democrats. In fact I think this crosses all party lines. It is not me going home and creating an atmosphere where people are doubtful of foreign aid. It’s that 80 to 90 percent
are doubtful.
We have two bridges in my state that are over 50 years old. The President came, and I flew down with him, to talk about re-building them. I’m in favor of replacing bridges and rebuilding our infrastructure. But at the same time, we seem to not have enough money to keep the doors open around here, not enough money to keep the touring of the White House open. This Administration sent and extra $250 million to Egypt. Many of us find that offensive.
We cannot even run the basic functions of government, and yet we send an extra $250 million in addition to the $2 billion we already send over there. So, many of us are offended by this. The question I have for you is, the Mubarak family is said to be worth more than $10 billion dollars. Most people say that a lot of that money came from our foreign aid.
Mobutu ruled for many, many years in Central Africa. He was said to be worth millions upon millions, if not billions of dollars. His wife was called “Gucci” Mobutu. She was famous for going to Paris and shopping for shoes with a Louis Vuitton bag full of $500,000 in cash to $1 million in cash. That money was looted from the American Treasury. There are all kinds of examples of theft and kleptocracy. There’s examples of our foreign aid being used to buy tear gas in Egypt and used to spray on the Egyptian people. So I don’t think it even buys the good will of the people because often it’s stolen by their leaders who are unpopular in their country. So I think it’s often counterproductive. But I think we are missing the boat here if you think that we’re stoking the fires and that the people don’t already believe this.
This is something that is already in the psyche of the people. People are upset about it and would rather spend money at home. But, I’d like your comments on the President’s position but also on the idea that a lot of foreign aid has been stolen by these leaders.
HON. KERRY: Well Senator, I think there’s a difference between some of the nation building that we’ve seen sometimes engaged in and good foreign aid programs that don’t rise to the level necessarily of some nation building. But, that’s a quibbling probably, and we’ll wind up arguing over the smaller issue rather than the larger one here. So, let me try to frame it this way.
Has some money been stolen? Absolutely. But by the largest measure possible today because of reforms that have been put in place, because of new accountability systems, because of the way aid is given now, because of something like the Millennium Challenge Corporation standards that are applied, investment and other kinds of things, the money, a lot of it doesn’t go to governments anymore directly. It goes into either the investment or into the project. It’s quite controlled. And that’s one of the reforms that has been put into place.
And we often have a fight about that with some countries. For instance, Pakistan pushed very, very hard to say, ‘No we want it directly to the government’ and we said, ‘No, we are going to do it this way to the project and so forth’ in order to have the kind of accountability that you’re talking about, that we need. So, historically, yeah.
But some of the riches of, you know, people who have ripped off their own governments have not necessarily have come from our aid. They’ve come from stealing the revenues of their oil, or selling the diamonds and the rubies that they have in their, you know, resource rich mines. And, there are plenty of ways that people have enriched themselves in some countries to the adversity of their people. That’s something we fight. I mean, that is also part of what our foreign policy and investments try to change: is installing rule of law - is trying to help with the justice system, create accountability for those things.
SEN. PAUL: But, nevertheless we kept sending money to Mobutu for years, and Mubarak for years, despite evidence they were stealing it.
HON. KERRY: I didn’t make that decision. And, I’ll certainly review any program that we’re engaged in now, and if you have any information about something we’re doing now that somebody’s stealing, let me know immediately. But, let me just go back to one thing about this. You know, all of this we do Sen. Paul, is one penny on the dollar, and if you look – I mean, I can go through a long list of things that we invest in that provide a return on our investment.
I’ll give you an example: we have stopped countless plots against our country, which had the FBI had not cooperated, and if the CIA and other entities not been creating some of the programs we have, had we not worked with the justice systems, and had Interpol and the other things we worked with, we would’ve never done Americans would have died. And they would’ve been blown up. But for the discovery of the Christmas bomber or the other people, which came through these kinds of efforts, we made our country safer. So, I have to tell you, for the penny on the dollar, I’ll still make this argument anywhere even though, yes, occasionally something gets abused just as it gets abused in some parts of every government.
SEN. PAUL: One quick question: the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey stated that he was no longer sure that the United States could identify the right people in Syria. I’m quite concerned with this, and concerned about arming elements of radical jihad that ultimately will come back to be our enemies or enemies of Israel.
My question is that there’s a million Christians in Syria, I don’t think they’ve quite decided which side they’re on. 250,000 of those Christians came from Iraq, because they weren’t too happy with the government that’s been installed in Iraq after we win the war. So the question is: you win the war and radical Islam takes over in Syria, or you give weapons to these groups – you have your own Joint Chiefs of Staff saying he’s not sure he knows who the right guys are to arm – I really think we ought to be careful about getting involved in this civil war.
HON. KERRY: Well, Senator your warnings is a legitimate one, and we are being careful. Which is why the President has not yet decided – which is why the President has not given lethal aid, he has given non-lethal aid. But, the President is correct, I believe, in his determination that President Assad can no longer represent the people of that country and the Syrian opposition is the broad based international entity that is representative of the real aspirations of the Syrian people.
Now, that’s a different determination from actually decided you can protect who’s getting what. I’ve had conversations with Gen. Dempsey, obviously, and I read his quote and I saw what he said. I think what he really said we’re not certain we can do that yet, but we have to make certain or we have to be sure. And, that’s exactly what we do have to do. And, that’s exactly what we’re engaged in – that’s why we have this meeting that I’m going to in Istanbul on the weekend. And, a lot of discussion is taking place to be certain of that determination. I think what he’s really saying is to be sure before you make the decision, and he’s absolutely right and that’s what we’re trying to do.
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[VIDEO] Rand Questions Secretary of State Kerry at Foreign Relations Hearing
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